Saad Ullah
From Hong Kong to Dubai
HSBC partnered with Landmark Group, a major retail organization, for a shipment that was sent from Hong Kong to Dubai. Both companies linked their respective blockchain platforms to perform the transaction and resulted in a reduction of 12 days, or 40%. Voltron, the HSBC blockchain platform, was connected with Landmark’s ReChainMe for the operation.
Voltron, designed for efficient trading and ReChainMe, a decentralized retail platform, combined their efforts for eliminating bottlenecks and delays in shipment deliver. The overall speed and economy has resulted in a significant impact.
Having the two platforms seamlessly connected meant all parties in the supply chain ecosystem were able to track and view the progress of the transaction,” The regional head of trade at HSBC MENA and Turkey, Sunil Veetil said. He further elaborated that involved parties could “agree on the terms of the transaction including logistics, co-create and approve documents and fast track supplier payments, all in real time.
Voltron blockchain is a dedicated trading platform that HSBC has been using and testing in recent months. Last February, the banking organization claimed that Voltron brought down the cost of foreign exchange settlement by nearly a quarter. The platform has given HSBC the ability to coordinate payments across trading markets in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific in real time.
Pro Blockchain
HSBC is one of a few handful banks that are openly positive on the idea of adopting blockchain for bringing improvement in how the current traditional banking sector is working. Its Head of Global Trade and Receivable Finance, Béatrice Collot, has emphasized in the past that blockchain has a lot of benefits, such as transparency and near instant transaction. Callot believes that blockchain will fundamentally change how the finance and banking sector works.
Jesse Drennan, the Senior Vice President of HSBC, even urged the Commodity and Future Trading Commission in March to use positive words about decentralized ledger technologies, “It would also be beneficial if the CFTC would give some positive words around DLT and DLT adoption” and “ …wherever the Commission could make positive noise, that may accelerate for some firms their ability to bring it to market as it overcomes that bit of due diligence about just having the conversation around how you feel about the use of the technology to support the activity that they are pursuing.”
HSBC had even said that it had done foreign exchange transactions worth more than USD 250 Billion using blockchainin 2018.
Saad Ullah
